The HarperCollins publishing house apologized for omitted Israel from maps in atlases that it sells to English-speaking schools in the Middle East.
“HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offense caused,” it said in a statement released late Wednesday.
It remained available on vendors’ websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble on Thursday, however.
The apology came less than a day after Collins Bartholomew, a map-publishing company that is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, told The Tablet, an international Catholic news weekly based in London, that including Israel in its “Collins Primary Geography Atlas For The Middle East” would have been “unacceptable” to their customers in the Gulf and that leaving Israel off the maps incorporated “local preferences.”
While Israel is not demarcated on the maps, the West Bank is clearly labeled.